Keynote Lecture
London Dispersion Effects in Molecular Chemistry – Reconsidering Steric Effects^[1]

The Gecko can walk up a glass window because of the adhesion in hydrophobic setae on its toes that convey van der Waals (vdW) interactions with the surface. The attractive part of such vdW-interactions is an electron correlation effect referred to as London dispersion. London dispersion has been underappreciated as an element of structural stability, reactivity, and catalysis. For increasingly larger struc­tures, the overall dispersion contribution grows rapidly and can amount to tens of kcal mol^–1. This presentation shows selected examples that emphasize the importance of inter- and intramolecular dispersion for molecules consisting mostly of first row atoms.² We note the synergy of experiment and theory that now has reached a stage where dispersion effects can be examined in fine detail.

(1) Wagner, J. P.; Schreiner, P. R. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 12274.

(2) a) Wende, R. C. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 2719; b) Rösel, S.; Balestrieri, C.; Schreiner, P. R. Chem. Sci. 2016; c) Procházková, E. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, in press; d) Fokin, A. A. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 13641; e) Schreiner, P. R. et al. Nature 2011, 477, 308; f) Grimme, S.; Schreiner, P. R. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 12639; g) Fokin, A. A.; Gerbig, D.; Schreiner, P. R. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 20036.